Industrial process control and automation systems (sometimes referred to simply as “control systems”) are often used to automate large and complex industrial processes. These types of systems routinely include sensors, actuators, and controllers. Some types of controllers typically receive measurements from the sensors and generate control signals for the actuators.
Some field instruments and field devices (collectively referred to as “field devices”) include sensor nodes used to obtain measurements of particular characteristics in an industrial process. Other field devices include actuator nodes used to adjust operations in the industrial process. A field device exchanges information with the control system over a wired or wireless interface.
As wireless technology has continued to become more available, wireless field devices have become more commonly used in control systems. A wireless field device includes transceiver circuitry that is capable of wirelessly transmitting and receiving information. Some wireless networks can include a large number of wireless field devices. For example, a wireless network may be used to transport sensor information from numerous wireless field devices to a controller of the control system.